Family Album, USA, part 46

Source: Family Album.

John Lomu, A Rugby legend

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Advanced

Standard: British and American

A Rugby Legend

Jonah Lomu has been described as rugby’s first superstar. A member of New Zealand’s legendary national team, the All Blacks, his performance in the 1995 World Cup was stunning. He seemed bigger and faster than all the other players on the pitch and, in a game against England, he looked like an adult playing against children. After the match the England captain, Will Carling, described him as “a freak.”

Lomu’s performance was so impressive that he even received offers to join teams in American football’s NFL, but he stuck with rugby. Sadly, his career was interrupted by a serious kidney disorder, but he has made a series of comebacks and his latest in with the French club Marseille.

In September 2009, Lomu took part in an amateur bodybuilding contest in Wellington, and finished a surprising second in two categories. He continues to play for Marseille Vitrolles Rugby.

Lomu talked about how he started playing rugby. He broke a record in 1994 when he made his All Black debut a few weeks after his 19^th birthday. What is less well known is that he had only begun playing the sort five years earlier:

Jonah Lomu:

(New Zealand accent)

I actually grew up in a very violent part of South Auckland. I used to, I guess, hang and roll with gangs in South Auckland. And my partents sent me to boarding school, to…to get me out of trouble, and I just fell in love with the game of rugby. I guess it’s…for me it was more making friends, camaraderie with friends, but also I liked the physical contact of it.

He was then asked what had been his most memorable moment in rugby:

Johan Lomu:

Still the first time playing for New Zealand, very first test. I guess it’s a dream for every New Zealand male to play for the All Blacks, it’s the highest and biggest honour that you can have, to represent New Zealand.

Jonah Lomu is generally considered an incon. He was asked how he felt about this:

Jonah Lomu:

To tell the truth, I still don’t…I try to set a good example, but, as an icon, I still find it very hard how because, for me I play rugby because I love the game and I don’t like to make myself fell that I’m any different from anybody else: if I can help somebody…in anyway, or set a good example, then I would.

Celebrities Pen names

Alberto Pinchele

Daniel Defoe

WHAT’S IN A NAME

Pen Names

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Lower intermediate

Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe

Standard: British accent

Many of the most famous writers in history have used pen names. Why?

SIMPLICITY AND STYLE

Eric Blair thought George Orwell was “a good round English name.” Daniel Foe, author of Robson Crusoe, decided Defoe sounded more aristocratic.  Vampire novelist, Anne Rice, changed her name early in life: her mother bizarrely named her after her father, Howard O’Brien. The famous Japanese haiku poet tried 15 pen names before settling on Basho, which means banana plant. Some choose simplicity. Georges Remi reversed his initials (French pronunciation) to become Hergé, author of Tintin. Joseph Conrad sounds reassuringly English, compared to Jozef Konrad Korzeniowki. Wilhelm Albert Vlademir Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky is less memorable than Guillaume Apollinaire, Ettore Schmitz became Italo Svevo because he “felt sorry for the one little vowel surrounded by all those fierce consonants;” it also sounds less foreign.

Not only are these pen names clear and memorable, they also look great on book covers. (Like pen names, authors often use their initials – from T.S. Eliot and D.H. Lawrence to J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling – to create a memorable brand). Some pen names are a kind of homage. Neftali Bosoalto put together Paul Verlaine and Czech writer Jan Neruda to become Nobel poet Pablo Neruda. Samuel Langhorne Clemens chose Mark Twain because it reminded him of his beloved Mississippi River.

GENRE AND GENDER

Writers may use pseudonyms for different for different genres. Math professor Charles Lutwidge Dodgson invented the playful name Lewis Carroll for Children’s books such as Alice in Wonderland. (Lewis is the French versionof Lutwidge; Caroll come from the Latin for Charles, Carolus.)

Pen names also disguise who you are for example, a woman. Mary Ann Evans did not want readers to assume her novels were romances, so she wrote as George Eliot. Amantine Aurore Dupin became George Sand, while the Brontë sisters (Anne, Charlotte and Emily) initially published as Actor Bell, Currer Bell and Ellis Bell.

CONCEALMENT AND DISGUISE

There are other reasons to hide one’s identity. Isak Dinesen was the pen name used for Out of Africa, the disguised autobiography of Baroness Karen Blixen. Because Irish civil servants were not allowed to publish books, Brian O’Nolan wrote novels as Flann O’Brien and articles as Myles na gCopalleen. Respected critic Anne Desclos wrote erotic best-seller, the Story of 0, as Pauline Réage. Stephen King published four novels under the name Richard Bachman to find out whether people bought his books for his name, rather than his writing.  Crime queen Agatha Christie used the pen name Mary Westmacott to write romances, exploring her own psychology n a way the Poirot and Miss Marpie novels could not.

Molliére hid his name (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) because the theater was shameful. Most touching, when he was just 16, future American politician Benjamin Franklin invented middle-aged widow Silence Dogood to get his satirical letters published in the newspaper printed by his brother.

Would you write books under your own name? Use your initials? Or would you prefer a pen name, to hide your identify or to be more memorable?

PEN NAME	REAL NAME
Alberto Moravia	Alberto Pinocherle
Anne Rice	Howard Allen O’Brien
Anthony Burgess	John Burgess Wilson
Boz	Charles Dickens
Daniel Defoe	Daniel Foe
Eltery Queen	Freeric Dannay and Manfred B. Lee
Flann O’Brien	Brian O’Nolan
George Elliot	Mary Ann Evans
George Orwell	Eric Arthur Blair
George Sand	Amandine Dupin
Guillaume Apokinaire	Vilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky
Hergé	Georges Remi
Karen Blixen	Isak Dinosen
Italo Stevo	Ettore Schmitz
John Le Careré	David John Moore Cornwell
Joseph Conrad	Józel Teodor
Lemony Snicket	Daniel Handler
Lewi Carroll	Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Mark Twain	Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Molière	Jean-Baptiste Poquelin
Pablo Neruda	Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto
Richard Bachman	Stephen King
Pauline Réage	Anne Desclos
Saki	Hector Hugo Munro
Stendhal	Marie-Henri Beyle
Voltaire	François-Marie Arguet

American History: How the Depression Hit Foreign Relations

Source: www.voanews.com

Photo: loc.gov

Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, in 1929

 

MARIO RITTER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.

The stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine began a long and difficult period for the United States. President Herbert Hoover struggled to find solutions as the nation sank into the worst economic crisis in its history.

But the Great Depression was not the only problem demanding answers from Hoover. The president also had to deal with a number of foreign policy issues.

I'm Mario Ritter with Chris Cruise. This week in our series, we look at how the Great Depression affected relations between the United States and other countries.

(MUSIC: “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)"/Ray Charles)

CHRIS CRUISE: There were revolutions in South America. Japan launched a campaign of aggression in northeastern China. And the economic situation in America created serious problems in relations with Europe.

Hoover succeeded in some areas of his foreign policy. But he failed to solve America's economic troubles. And, like most Americans, he failed to recognize the importance of political changes taking place in Japan and Germany.

MARIO RITTER: Herbert Hoover's foreign policy was marked by his desire to make friends and avoid war.

Like most Americans, the new president had been shocked by World War One. Hoover had seen the results of that terrible war with his own eyes. He led the international effort to feed the many European victims of the fighting. The new president was also a Quaker, a member of the Religious Society of Friends. Quakers oppose war.

Hoover shared the wish of most Americans that the world would never again fight a major war. To him, the bloody bodies at Verdun, the Marne and the other battlefields of World War One showed the need to seek peace through negotiations.

CHRIS CRUISE: Hoover worked toward this goal even before he entered the White House.

Following his election, he had several months before becoming president. Hoover used this time to travel to Latin America for ten weeks. He wanted to show Latin American nations that they could trust the United States to honor their rights as independent nations.

Hoover kept his word. The year after he took office, his administration announced that it would recognize the governments of all Latin American countries, including governments that the United States did not like.

Hoover told the American people that he would not follow the Latin American policies of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt decided in nineteen four that the United States had a right to intervene in Latin America if it disagreed with the actions of governments there. Hoover said this was wrong. He told the country that it was more important to use friendship than to use force.

(MUSIC)

MARIO RITTER: Hoover withdrew American forces from Nicaragua. He also arranged to withdraw them from Haiti. And he showed restraint as some fifty revolutions shook the nations of Latin America.

Some revolutionary governments opposed the United States. They refused to pay debts to American companies, or they claimed ownership of foreign property. But Hoover refused to advance American interests by force. He wanted to prove that the United States could treat Latin American nations as equals.

That policy was quite successful. Relations between the United States and Latin American countries generally improved under Herbert Hoover's leadership.

CHRIS CRUISE: The situation in Europe was much more difficult and much more serious for the United States. The problem was simple -- money. The Great Depression did not stop at America's borders. It moved to Britain, Europe and beyond. And it brought extremely hard economic conditions.

In Germany, the value of the national currency collapsed. Inflation forced people to buy goods with hundreds, thousands, even millions of German marks. They lost faith in the system. And they looked for some new leader to provide solutions.

The economic crisis also put great pressure on the international circle of debt that had been created after the war. Suddenly, American bankers could no longer make loans to Germany. This meant that Germany could not pay back war debts to France and the other Allied nations in "the war to end all wars." And without this money, the Allied nations could not repay money that they owed American banks.

The circle of debt fell apart.

(MUSIC: "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?"/Bing Crosby with Lennie Hayton and His Orchestra)

MARIO RITTER: The situation grew worse and worse throughout the early months of nineteen thirty. Hoover finally had to announce that all nations could delay their debt payments to the United States for one year.

Hoover's action did what he wanted it to. It put a temporary stop to the international debt crisis. But it caused great damage to private banks. People lost faith in the banking system.

Throughout Europe, people withdrew their money from banks. As a result, the European banks could not repay more than a billion dollars that they had borrowed from private American banks.

CHRIS CRUISE: This was not the only problem. Nations throughout Europe were also forced to take their currencies off the gold standard. This meant their money no longer could be exchanged for gold.

The economic situation grew worse. And, as it did, serious political tensions began to threaten peace in Asia and Europe.

MARIO RITTER: The threat in Asia became clear first.

Japan had defeated Russia in a war in nineteen five. This victory gave Japan control over the economy of the southern part of what was then called Manchuria, in northeastern China.

As years passed, Japan began to feel threatened by two forces. First, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek was trying to organize all of China under the control of his Nationalist forces. Second, Russia was extending the Chinese Eastern Railway to the Russian port city of Vladivostok.

Japan's army took control of the government in Tokyo in late nineteen thirty-one. The army was fearful of the growing threat to Japan's control of Manchuria. So it moved Japanese troops immediately into several Manchurian cities. And it claimed political control of the whole area.

President Hoover and most Americans strongly opposed Japan's aggression. But they were not willing to take any action that might lead to another world war.

(MUSIC)

CHRIS CRUISE: Japan's military leaders knew that the people of Europe and America had no desire to fight to protect China. And so the Japanese army marched on. It invaded the huge city of Shanghai, killing thousands of civilians.

Western leaders condemned the action. American Secretary of State Henry Stimson said the United States would not recognize Japanese control in these areas of China.

But, again, Hoover refused to consider any economic actions against the Japanese. And he strongly opposed taking any military action.

The League of Nations also refused to recognize Japan's takeover. It called Japan the aggressor in Manchuria. Japan reacted simply. It withdrew from the League of Nations.

MARIO RITTER: Most Americans were not happy about Japan's aggression. But they were not willing to fight force with force. This was less true, however, for Secretary of State Stimson.

Stimson was a follower of the old ideas of President Theodore Roosevelt. He believed a nation could only have a strong foreign policy by being strong and using its military power in times of crisis.

But Stimson's voice was in the minority. Most Americans did not believe Japan really threatened the security of the United States. And they were not ready to risk their lives to help people in China.

Opinions changed only after Japanese planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December of nineteen forty-one.

CHRIS CRUISE: The same story was true in Europe. But France was worried about the rising power of the Nazis in Germany and the Fascists in Italy and Spain. France proposed the creation of an international army.

Hoover opposed that idea. He called for all nations to reduce their weapons. He believed that negotiation, not force, was the way to solve the problem.

But the new leaders in Germany and Japan would listen much more closely to the boot steps of marching troops than to the high words of peace.

(MUSIC)

MARIO RITTER: Our program was written by David Jarmul. You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow our series on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English.

I'm Mario Ritter with Chris Cruise. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.

_

This is program #17

8

Geotrilhas, Chapada Diamantina's Expedition

Special expedition GEOTRILHAS/RN Chapada Dimantina 2010 3º Episode. For more information you should follow up the Day 3th. Today's programme, watch the images of Cachoeira da Fumaça (Smoke's Waterfall). Geotrilhas is a group of friends and blogger's partner I had a pleasure to meet them here in my town. Next posting I'm going to talk about Carnaúba's expedition. Lazaro & Cia we had a good time here. See you around and visit the weblog: http://wwwgeotrilhas.blogspot.com 

Pro-jovem, part 34, Inglês vip

For more information you should visit http://www.ingvip.com go to the section in Curso de Coversação because it was a government project a.k.a (Also known as) Pro-Jovem there are 38 useful videos. 

South Pasadena, part II

Source: Speak Up
Language level: Advanced
Speaker: Chuck Rolando
Standard: American Accent

South Pasadena, part II

Hurray for Hollywood!

When you wander through the streets of South Pasadena, in southern California, it’s easy to believe you’re on a film set. So it’s no surprise that the city is a popular movie location: examples include The terminator, Gone with the Wind, Hallowen, American Pie and Legally Blonde. We asked City Manager John Davidson  why South Pasadena was such a favorite with Hollywood producers:

John Davidson

(Standard American accent):

I think it’s popular for a couple of reasons. One, you know, we go back to the homes, the trees, some of the wide streets that you might see. On top of that, it is, from a filming standpoint, it’s rather close to Hollywood. So you can get over to Hollywood pretty quickly from here, to the west side. And it makes economic sense for them, as opposed to…having to travel for days, or extended trips. We’re relatively close to the downtown area, but you don’t feel it.

We’re 10 minutes away, but you’d never know it.

Another striking characteristic of South Pasadena is the relative absence of traffic. As John Davidson explains, residents have managed to defend their community from the horrors of urban development:

John Davidson:

The people in South Pasadena had a vision. And they recognised that we’re…not going to fall, in the way that so many other communities have, to where they were going to allow developers to drive what the community looks like, versus the community will drive what the developers are going to be allowed to do. So I’m going to say it’s been a combination of citizen involvement, good government and selective projects being, you know, processed and the ability to say yes, but also the ability to say no. It’s a community that recognized a long time ago that our schools are important, and we have wonderful schools here, they’re just incredible, but they’re also recognized that, no, it’s not going to happen here in South Pas, where they’re preserving the past and, you know, and they’re also proactive to looking at the future.